Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Here’s an hour of Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh appearing on the Doctor Demento radio show in 1980 playing songs from his own collection. Mothersbaugh is in character the entire time as “Booji Boy,” the “infantile spirit of de-evolution.”

Booji Boy’s taste leans towards Krautrock and a number of songs from “tapes or records that kids gave me when we were touring.” We’re treated to deep-cut selections by Holger Hiller, The Plastics, Crash Course in Science, Neu, Tagmemics, Der Plan, and an unnamed French new wave band, among others.

He also plays rare demo versions of a few Devo tracks: “Workin’ in a Coal Mine,” “I’m a Potato” and “Softcore Mutations.”

Doctor Demento seems politely exasperated with Mothersbaugh’s in-studio antics at points, describing his behavior during one break: “he took our television set and our lamp and was swinging them wildly all around his playpen.”

At about 26 minutes in Booji Boy tells the story of Devo’s live concert staple “The Words Get Stuck in My Throat” and how it was adapted from a song in the 1966 Japanese monster movie War of the Gargantuas and he plays the original version from the film’s soundtrack.

All-in-all it’s a pretty fascinating listen and certainly one of the more interesting Doctor Demento playlists.

Press play to hear the entire show:

And here’s Booji Boy performing “The Words Get Stuck in My Throat” live in Paris in 1978: